Fortune and Fame
by Uncle Steve
Summary: A Toreador discovers the advantages of Fame when playing Camarilla politics.


This started as a short chapter with no other starting point than the song, for a forum on a White Wolf site. The pages were smaller than here, and the chapters had to be punchier, so I'm still finding my feet a bit. Please review and let me know what you think. 

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_Everybody wants to know Somebody   
Everyone wants to drop your name,   
You need no reservation -   
No special invitation -   
No College Education -   
When you've got Fortune and Fame..._

  
"Hello, Anthony. How long has it been?" 

To his credit, Antonio Giovanni didn't flinch. You don't often expect a disembodied voice to appear by your right elbow when you're alone in a locked room, but Antonio knew that appearances were everything and wouldn't dream of letting surprise show. He put down his book and answered the question in a flat, calm tone.   
"Three hundred and forty-seven years." 

The voice (which now had a body to go with it, emerging from the shadows in the corner) laughed softly. "Somehow I knew you'd have an exact answer for that."   
The Giovanni didn't turn around, and the newcomer stayed out of sight. The light in the old room dimmed, which was odd since it was electric. The fireplace had been removed, of course, and small lamps lined the wall at head height.   
"Why are you here, David?" 

"You have a problem."   
Antonio, who had long since grown tired of people not giving him straight answers, just waited.   
Eventually the one called David continued. "You've recently lost an artifact that would have secured you a boon from a most useful person."   
A touch of anger in his voice, Antonio nodded. "Yes."   
"Caitlin McDonald made sure you didn't get it."   
Antonio spluttered. "Caitlin? But she's a Toreador! She's not even Primogen!"   
"I know. Amazingly, it seems we've found something I never expected to see in my un-lifetime: a Toreador with a brain." 

The Kindred was stunned. "This is outrageous! She can't take on the Giovanni... doesn't she know the Family will squash her flat?"   
"Apparently not. Several of my sources are becoming increasing worried - you're not the only one this little upstart has acted against. We'd appreciate it if you could take steps."   
"You can prove it was her?"   
"Oh yes. She's very thorough, but ghouls are always the weakest link in the chain. If it wasn't for a lucky encounter with one of her more hedonistic servants, we'd never have suspected her."   
The Giovanni sat for a moment, considering his next move. 

"Leave her to me. I'll get some people onto it." 

-- 

Antonio arrived at his superior's house and was shown to a chair outside the drawing room. The ghoul bowed slightly. "The Master is in a meeting at present. Please wait here." Through a half-open doorway Renardo could be seen talking with two other figures. 

"If you try and back out now, we'll kill you and feed your family to sharks." Renardo Giovanni did not sounds as though he was joking. The second Kindred in the room tried to calm the terrified mortal who'd just received this news. "Ha ha! He's joking, of course."   
Renardo grinned. "Yeah, I am. We couldn't go against procedure - currently we feed your children to dogs, then eat the dogs."   
The mortal tried a scared laugh at the latest statement and looked to the second Kindred for confirmation. The vampire wasn't smiling. Suddenly, neither was the mortal. 

A few minutes later the (now somewhat paler and sweating) man was shown out, and Antonio was called in to see Renardo. Arranging retaliation for the Toreador's actions took less than a minute. 

-- 

The next night, Marco and Enrico approached the target house on foot. Marco was the older, and taller - he was famous amongst the kindred he worked with for being possibly the most dour and serious person in Britain today. Enrico (who was positively manic by comparison) was trying to get a reaction for "Old Stone Face". 

"Aren't you ever happy? C'mon! It can't hurt to smile just once..."   
Marco looked perplexed, but kept frowning. "But why would I do that?"   
"Well, can't you find _anything_ to be happy about?" 

Marco considered this for a few seconds. "It's three a.m. and I haven't been shot in the head yet?" 

The younger kindred blinked a few times. "I can see we have some way to go, here. So anyway: we're just here to kill the ghouls so that the Toreador bitch doesn't have any unexpected allies when Tony confronts her, right?"   
Marco retained his serious expression. "Fair enough." 

-- 

Luckily for the ghouls in question, one of them was looking out of the window as the Giovanni approached.   
"Erm, Dave? I know those guys. They're a Giovanni hit squad - the ones that got Jacob after the December thing went wrong. I have this horrible feeling they're looking for us because of that statuette business. We'd better get the hell outta here."   
"What? Where do we go?"   
"I'm thinking a different country might be a good start..."   
Dave saw his nice stable life disappearing fast down the tubes. "But I had plans for tonight!"   
"What plans?" 

"I planned not to have my head ripped off by a frenzying Giovanni. You're right, let's run like hell."   
They started right then, and not thirty seconds later. Which turned out to be very fortunate for both of them. With the ghouls nowhere to be found, the order was given for Antonio to arrange a meeting with Caitlin. 

-- 

The two things people often forget about Toreador are:   
i) They may be simpering attention-seekers, but they're still undead Beast-driven Killers.   
ii) Most of them know some Celerity. 

Or, in Caitlin's case, lots of celerity. This was irrelevant however, because as Antonio's acquaintance had pointed out: this Toreador had a _brain._

-- 

The Ventrue Primogen drank carefully from a warmed glass of extra virgin. Caitlin sat opposite him, lounging decorously on some very expensive furniture.   
"I thought I'd covered myself, Peter. I'm sorry." Her voice was honey, as always.   
The male figure in the large chair waved a hand as though he was dispensing forgiveness. "Don't blame yourself. It seemed foolproof at the time." He studied the glass of liquid thoughtfully. "Hmm. Maybe we're not as good at this as we imagined. Are you sure you've got the next phase under control?"   
"Oh yes. And I've got a lot of imagination. If we're only half as good as we imagined, that should still be enough."   
This brought a chuckle from the Ventrue, and Caitlin smiled reassuringly.   
"Well, good." He allowed himself to savour the vintage.   
The Bach continued to play quietly in the background. 

-- 

Brian found the house easily. High on adrenalin and with a glorious future waiting, he signaled to his four friends to join him. Brian was Caitlin Cassidy's biggest fan. Even though she'd been retired for quite a while now, he'd seen nearly all her movies. He'd even ordered a copy of "Nympho Co-ed Ninja Vixen Assassins", and that was done by the same company that made "Killer Ninja Kung-Fu Death Kick 3", so it must be good. The sequel had made an entire room of male college students cry (and not just because Caitlin proved there was a God when she had to disrobe for a Jacuzzi scene). 

When Brian had got hold of her actual e-mail address, he knew he'd hit the jackpot. Soon his joy turned to anger as she told him about her Stalker and how she spent all her time terrified. Now Brian had a purpose. How could someone so beautiful, such a _star_, get treated like this? She'd told him how the Police wouldn't help, and he'd felt like a white knight when he'd suggested his plan. At first she was horrified, of course, but soon the fear had grown too much and she'd relented. 

Brian knew without a doubt that she was worth defending from this monster. After all, it wasn't like she was a member of the public. She was _famous._

Antonio Giovanni barely had time to get up from his chair. The ghoul on the door didn't expect one mortal to be any trouble... until Brian shot him with a tazer. Storming the house with his four buddies, Brian unpacked the sawn-off shotgun. Antonio got a blast full in the face and promptly went into torpor. Assuming him dead, Brian and his friends set fire to the house as per Caitlin's instructions. She'd said it would help to cover their tracks from the Police. Brian ran from the burning house, thinking about how clever Caitlin was. He didn't have any idea that her e-mail address would have ceased to exist by the morning, or that the Police would get an anonymous tip-off the day after that. 

-- 

It was all about appearances. Preparing for the Camarilla meeting three days later, Caitlin unpacked her giggling Barbie-Doll persona and tried some intermediate pouting as a warm up. 

The pouts were good. She moved onto some advanced preening. 

It was just like the movies, darling. What's my motivation? ~Airhead. Bubbly. Vacuous...~ The Giovanni were no longer a problem. In their organization you had to clear up your own mess, and Antonio had failed to do that. No further action would be taken.   
"Wow! That's like, sooo amazing!!"   
Yep, the voice was still good too. 

A Toreador with a brain is a dangerous thing. After next week's meetings in Elysium, the Ventrue Primogen was going to find out just _how_ dangerous. 

  
_"She's there looking up at me   
Desperately in love with me   
Just can't get enough of me   
If I've got Fortune and Fame..."_   
- Fortune and Fame, by 'The KGB'. 


End file.
